Iceberg Detection Using Simulated Dual-Polarized Radarsat Constellation Data

Iceberg monitoring is an important application of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and is one of the stated objectives of the Radarsat Constellation, the next generation of Canada’s Radarsat satellites. In this paper, we simulate Radarsat Constellation data in a number of different imaging modes, using Radarsat-2 single-look complex data covering a study area in the Labrador Sea. We test the iceberg detection performance of both linear dual-pol data as well as compact polarimetry, a novel SAR architecture that transmits circular polarization rather than the traditional horizontal or vertical polarizations. We use the likelihood ratio test method to calculate a decision variable image for each of a number of different dual-pol and compact configurations, then analyze the detection performance using 25 validated iceberg locations spread across 12 different scenes. We found that compared to the linear data, the compact data missed fewer targets, and detected a greater number of pixels of detected targets, for most of the incidence angles and imaging modes tested. Compact polarimetry seems to be a promising choice for iceberg detection applications.